Contemporary perspectives of social capital building in outdoor education

Michael J.A Down; David Hills; Brendon Munge; Scott Jukes

doi:10.1080/14729679.2026.2653250

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Contemporary perspectives of social capital building in outdoor education

Journal article

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Contemporary perspectives of social capital building in outdoor education

Michael J.A Down, David Hills, Brendon Munge and Scott Jukes

Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning , Vol.Advanced access

01-Apr-2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2026.2653250

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Abstract

Social capital

outdoor education

Contemporise

Social relationships

Communities

Social capital refers to the interrelated relationships between members of specific communities. These relationships manifest through shared norms, voluntary associations, shared values, reciprocity and mutual trust. In 2008, Beames and Atencio explored the major themes of social capital and outdoor education’s impact on its development. This paper provides a series of contemporary reflections on social capital building in outdoor education by examining it through four different themes: a contemplation on climate change and more-than-human sociality, considering the role of mobile and digital technology, examining ‘beneficial burdens’ in outdoor education and the role that the building of social capital has on the wellbeing of participants. We conclude with some suggestions for practice and future research.

Details

Title: Contemporary perspectives of social capital building in outdoor education
Authors: Michael J.A Down (Corresponding Author) - The University of Notre Dame Australia
David Hills (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Brendon Munge (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Scott Jukes (Author) - Federation University
Publication details: Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning , Vol.Advanced access
Publisher: Routledge
DOI: 10.1080/14729679.2026.2653250
ISSN: 1754-0402
Copyright note: © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Organisation Unit: K'gari Research Cluster; School of Education and Tertiary Access
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991220430202621
Output Type: Journal article

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